PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
Police arrested a couple on Thursday for smuggling 14 protected-species turtles. The arrest was made during a checking drive running across the district on the instruction of the SSP Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh.
On the morning of December 4, the Raiwala police stopped a car near the gate of Raiwala Kotwali on the national highway leading to Rishikesh. When the police checked the vehicle, they found suspicious behaviour in the couple. During the checking, the police opened the car’s trunk and found 14 small and large turtles. These turtles belong to a protected wildlife species.
The couple accused has been identified as Betabnath and his wife Barkha. They were going to their home Rishikesh.
During interrogation, the accused Betabnath told the police that he works as a scrap dealer. He said that they brought the turtles from a person in Najibabad. They were taking the turtles to their home in Rishikesh with the plan to sell them to local buyers at high prices to make profit.
